Kazakhstan approves extradition request for Russian activist Yuliya Emelyanova

On January 29, Russian activist and former staff member of Alexei Navalny’s St. Petersburg headquarters, Yuliya Emelyanova, received a document stating that Kazakhstan has agreed to her extradition, the Anti-War Committee reports.

Emelyanova was detained on August 31, 2025, at the request of the Russian authorities during a layover at Almaty Airport. She was later placed in pretrial detention in Kazakhstan, where she remains to this day. Emelyanova applied for asylum in Kazakhstan, and the procedure for considering her request has not yet been fully completed, the Anti-War Committee says.

The document approving extradition Emelyanova got immediately after a visit by her lawyer. Human rights defenders working on her case learned of it only during their next visit. Kazakhstan’s prosecutor’s office did not notify them of its decision. The lawyers plan to appeal it.

In Russia, a criminal case for theft (Part 2, Article 158 of the Criminal Code) has been opened against the activist. In 2021, she was accused of stealing a taxi driver’s phone worth 12,000 rubles. The Ark project (Kovcheg) called the case fabricated:

‘The phone that Emelyanova allegedly stole from the taxi driver was shown to her only in the police station, where she was brought from her home wearing a nightgown. It was not seized from her home. The case shows signs of fabrication.’

In July 2022, the case was sent to the Kalininsky District Court of St. Petersburg. By that time, Emelyanova had left Russia. Last summer, she flew from Georgia to Vietnam with a layover in Almaty, where she was detained. According to her lawyer, she did not know that she would have to leave the transit zone in Almaty, as airline representatives had assured her that this would not be necessary.

On January 29, it also became known that Kazakhstan had agreed to extradite political activist from Chechnya Mansur Movlaev to Russia. He is also being held in pretrial detention in Kazakhstan. In addition, on February 1, Kazakhstan deported developer Alexander Kachkurkin on a pretext; he was detained in Russia on charges of high treason (Article 275 of the Criminal Code) immediately after his plane landed. On the night of February 1–2, Kazakh police handed over deserter Semyon Bazhukov to Russian military personnel.

The project Support for Political Prisoners. Memorial provided detailed coverage of these and other cases last week.